Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek at the
first border of this gorgeous Christmas in Baltimore quilt by a
talented California hand-applique artist.

But first, let me explain,
I have a Love/Hate relationship with monofilament (or, invisible)
thread. When it works for me, it works beautifully. But, there have
been times, when switching to it from my regular trilobal poly thread
(love me some Glide thread!), I have been totally unable to balance
the tension. To the point where, on several occasions, I have cursed
out loud that “I will never use the darn stuff again!”

So, I told this quilt maker
that I would use Glide, and match all the threads colors to the
fabrics.

But...(I whined) invisible
thread is really the best option for any piece that needs lots of
stitch in the ditch and applique outlining.

Okay, so I put on my Big
Girl Panties, loaded a practice fabric sandwich and started fiddling
with the tension knob. Invisible threads (whether nylon or poly) have
a certain amount of stretch, and are quite a bit finer than regular
thread, and they like to run with the top tension a bit looser. Fine
tuning your tension when switching thread types just needs to be
done.

OMG, I got the tension
absolutely perfect on the very first try! I know there is nothing
wrong with the thread or my machine. Tension is absolutely the
longarm quilters responsibility. But, I still don't know why it is
working now as opposed to before.